Legal Work Portfolio

There is a variety of work for us that is relevant to your profession and interest - I am also surprised that we can find interesting work for two of you in the legal sphere. 

Here am including an overview of the legal work (this is for you too NJ) and copying to some of the others who shall contribute directly (Others this is only for future reference - no need to study) and no action required). NJ and ZT - we shall take it step by step - so no need to be concerned as many topics shall perplex. 

1. Social Service 

                        - awwa.lk to be patched up - we can only allocate you for a limited time for this - maybe a week - not all at once - so try to get your introduction to Mrs. Zubair patron of AWWA - also Director of FECT  - to get inputs to patch up - accessible via whatsapp/viber or Skype - and there is a member called Thahaney - who is a neighbor - who may be someone you can meet with intro from Rimza. (for this AN and FS shall have the institutional memory, the folks who edit awwa.lk are in Digana - so you can go visit Janan and Priyan there after you have your content organized. 

                        - see whether we can foster a publishing unit for AWWA from the grant received for Newsview after Ashara and I wrote up the proposal to the US State Dept. Basically, Newsview has a wonderful history and is very useful in our work and in our outreach. 

But for the excess burden on volunteers, lack of revenue streams, and the various distractions for its male leaders (foreign jobs, politics, etc),  it is on the decline and its publication frequency is becoming rarer than monthly. The grant for $25K can change this direction. Not sure it shall for various reasons. Time is also running out - cos its 3 months since the grant was awarded - and there is no plan in sight. 

To get something positive out of this - we are thinking of doing a publishing unit through AWWA

There are many women who if they are brought and organized properly can keep it going if Newsview wants them to. AWWA has two offices, lot of goodwill, some skilled folks who can do this.  They also published a volume called Kurinchethean and are trying to publish a second volume of it. But they are quite inexperienced and not digitally able. We have to find ways to just jumpstart this and then they can take it away. 

2. Voluntary Service Organization  

               - this is already established in Akurana already and about to be established in digana -   You  can help with planned school programs in Digana - we need trilingual engagement. 

Have to think whether we can do this, 

               - work with AWWA is also part of this

3. Legal 

          - Variety of Property Issues that have consumed by time, want her and NJ to put it in order and document these properly. I made a list of about 15 issues for us to deal with. 

The key issue here is documentation and basically downloading content from my mothers memory!  

          - HR issues - NJ is handling - when I come in Feb we can see how you learn from each others experience  

          - company law - registration, tax, compliance - NJ and you can help for FECT in Maldives, Comoros and New York apart from in SL

4. Advocacy 

          - UoP runs legal clinics around Peradeniya

          - we are interacting with vulnerable people, badly affected due to state and private action or inaction in Norochcholai, Aranayaka, Akurana flooding  

          - there is prospects for some engagement here. 

          - We have been interacting with Environmental Law Foundation for a few issues such as

www.climate.lk/cot www.climate.lk/sethu and the Norochcholai Air pollution work. I am on the environment committee on the public utilities commission of sri lanka. Recently, I was invited to be on their Advisory board but declined on account of the conflict of interest as EFL is arguing on behalf of some of the affected in Norochcholai. Anyway, we can engage with them as well. 

There is a Norochcholai visit report that we did and we are thinking of putting air pollution monitors there - rather than keeping it in our office. 

   

5. Research 

         -  Environmental Law - I wrote up a paper on EIA - it is time for a follow up. EIA has changed for the worse. (You can find the publication under academic commons link in the publications tab at lareef.net ) 

         - Charitable orgs and EPF and ETF and other regulations is something that should be written up - we have figured  out lots of issues that few seem to know of.   

         - Climate Change - as you can see from the Columbia Climate and Law Centre there is a lot of legal issues that arise  

You can be involved in issues outside the legal sphere as well if interested. We have work on social topics.